Clarke v. Stalder

• Citation: 154 F.3d 186
• Decision Date: 01 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-30313,96-30313
• Parties: Charles W. CLARKE, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Richard L. STALDER, et al., Defendants, Richard L. Stalder, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee, Robert Tanner, Defendant-Appellee, Captain Charles Moulard, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Page 186

154 F.3d 186

Charles W. CLARKE, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Richard L. STALDER, et al., Defendants, Richard L. Stalder, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee, Robert Tanner, Defendant-Appellee, Captain Charles Moulard, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 96-30313.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Sept. 1, 1998.

Terry Edward Allbritton, App. Advocacy Program, Tulane Law School, Jane L. Johnson, Tulane Law Clinic, New Orleans, LA, for Clarke.

Richard A. Fraser, III, Gelpi, Sullivan, Carroll & Gibbens, Cary A. Des Roches, Fraser & Des Roches, New Orleans, LA, for Stalder, Tanner and Moulard.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, and REYNALDO G. GARZA, KING, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, JONES, SMITH, DUHE, WIENER, BARKSDALE, EMILIO M. GARZA, DeMOSS, BENAVIDES, STEWART, PARKER and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judge:

We granted rehearing en banc to consider whether the Supreme Court's decisions in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994), and Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997), bar Charles W. Clarke, a Louisiana state prisoner, from bringing a facial challenge to a portion of Rule 3 of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections' Disciplinary Rules and Procedures for Adult Prisoners ("Rule 3") in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action when Clarke has not yet had his "conviction" reversed, expunged, or otherwise declared invalid. If Heck and Edwards do not bar Clarke's claim, we also granted rehearing en banc to consider the question of whether the portion of Rule 3 in question facially violates prisoners' First Amendment rights.

The magistrate judge who heard this case held that Rule 3 had been unconstitutionally applied to Clarke and that the portion of the rule in question was facially unconstitutional. Based on these holdings, the magistrate judge restored Clarke's lost good-time credits but declined to award him damages. On appeal, a panel of this court reversed the magistrate judge and held that the Supreme Court's decisions in Heck and Edwards bar Clarke from bringing claims for damages and reinstatement of lost good-time credits in a § 1983 action until his "conviction" has been reversed, expunged, or otherwise declared invalid. Clarke v. Stalder, 121 F.3d 222 (5th Cir.), reh'g en banc granted and opinion vacated by 133 F.3d 940 (5th Cir.1997). In Part III of its opinion, however, the panel affirmed the magistrate judge and held that Clarke's facial challenge to the constitutionality of Rule 3 was not barred by Heck or Edwards, that Clarke had standing to bring a facial challenge to the rule, and that the portion of the rule in question was facially violative of the First Amendment.

Finding that Heck and Edwards bar Clarke's facial challenge at this time, we vacate the magistrate judge's holding that Rule 3 is facially unconstitutional and remand with instructions to dismiss. All parts of the panel opinion except for Part III and related portions of Part V are hereby reinstated.

I

The facts underlying Clarke's confrontation with Moulard and the ensuing suit are fully discussed in the panel opinion and dissent, Clarke v. Stalder, supra. As recounted there, Clarke brought the instant action against various prison officials based on events arising out of a confrontation with Captain Charles Moulard, a prison guard. Clarke interfered with another prisoner to whom Moulard had assigned various chores. When Moulard attempted to issue a disciplinary report to Clarke, Clarke threatened to file a lawsuit and an administrative complaint against Moulard. Moulard accordingly charged Clarke with violating Rule 3. This rule, in part, prohibits a prisoner from "threatening [a prison employee] with legal redress during a confrontation situation" ¹ ("no threats of legal redress" portion). At a hearing before a prison disciplinary board, Clarke denied Moulard's allegations, but to no avail. The disciplinary board found that Clarke had violated Rule 3 because Moulard's report was clear and precise, Clarke had offered no coherent defense, and Clarke had little credibility. The board also noted that Clarke "admit[ted] he threatened legal redress during a confrontation with staff." The board punished Clarke with the loss of ten days good-time credits and transferred him to a higher-security prison.

Clarke subsequently brought this suit, alleging that the "no threats of legal redress" portion of Rule 3 violated his rights protected by the First Amendment and seeking damages and the return of his good-time credits. He also sought prospective injunctive relief from the "no threats of legal redress" portion of the rule on grounds of facial unconstitutionality. A panel of this court held that Heck and Edwards "clearly barred" Clarke's contention that he was entitled to damages and reinstatement of his good-time credits because so doing would "necessarily imply" the invalidity of his "conviction." See Clarke, 121 F.3d at 226. With regard to Clarke's facial challenge to Rule 3, the panel held that "it is unclear upon which portion of [Rule 3] Clarke's conviction is based. That being so, a ruling in Clarke's favor on his First Amendment claim for prospective relief will not 'necessarily imply' the invalidity of his prison conviction." Id. at 227.

II

The root inconsistency in the panel opinion lies in its finding that the prison disciplinary board punished Clarke for violation of the "no threats of legal redress" portion of Rule 3 with regard to Clarke's claims for damages and restoration of his good-time credits but not with regard to his claim that this portion of Rule 3 is facially unconstitutional. Both the report issued by the prison disciplinary board and the report issued by the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Corrections on Clarke's internal appeal of the disciplinary board decision state that Clarke admitted to the prison disciplinary board that he "threatened legal redress during a confrontation with staff." Clarke's complaint, as amended, alleges that he was punished for violating the "no threats of legal redress" portion of Rule 3 in violation of the First Amendment. Although the appellants argued below and to this court at its en banc rehearing of this case that Clarke had been punished for violating other portions of Rule 3 in addition to the "no threats of legal redress" portion of the rule, the magistrate's opinion indicates as follows:

At issue in this case is that portion of Rule 3 which allows prison officials to discipline inmates for "threatening" legal redress during a "confrontation situation" ... From the evidence that was presented at trial, the Court readily infers that plaintiff was stripped of good time credits and was transferred to a medium security prison in retaliation for voicing his intention to exercise his First Amendment rights.

Critically, the magistrate's opinion also states: "[h]ad [Clarke] threatened the defendant with physical harm or insulted the employee or his family, disciplinary action against [Clarke] would have been appropriate under the other, unchallenged portions of DOC Rule 3." Accordingly, we find that Clarke was punished for violation of the "no threats of legal redress" portion of Rule 3.

III

We start with several familiar propositions. A prisoner cannot, in a § 1983 action, challenge the fact or duration of his confinement or recover good-time credits lost in a prison disciplinary proceeding. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 487, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 1835, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973). A prisoner also cannot bring a § 1983 action seeking damages (rather than the recovery of good-time credits) based on a "conviction" until that "conviction" has been reversed on direct appeal, expunged by executive order, or otherwise declared invalid in a state collateral proceeding or by the issuance of a federal writ of habeas corpus, if a favorable judgment would "necessarily imply" the invalidity of the prisoner's "conviction" or the length of his confinement. Heck, 512 U.S. at 486-87, 114 S.Ct. at 2372. A "conviction," for purposes of Heck, includes a ruling in a prison disciplinary proceeding that results in a change to the prisoner's sentence, including the loss of good-time credits. See Edwards, 520 U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 1587; Stone-Bey v. Barnes, 120 F.3d 718, 721 (7th Cir.1997) ("The 'conviction' in the prison disciplinary sense is the finding of guilt on the disciplinary charge, and if success of the plaintiff's section 1983 claim necessarily would imply the invalidity of that finding, then Heck bars the claim until such time as its requirements are satisfied."). Claims for damages and declaratory relief challenging the procedures used in, but not the results of, prison disciplinary proceedings are similarly not cognizable in a § 1983 action until the relevant "conviction" has been reversed, expunged, or otherwise declared invalid if a favorable judgment would "necessarily imply" the invalidity of the prisoner's "conviction" in the disciplinary proceeding or the length of the prisoner's confinement. Edwards, 520 U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 1588.

Like Clarke, the prisoner-plaintiff in Edwards brought a claim for prospective injunctive relief, in addition to bringing claims for damages and declaratory relief. The Supreme Court remanded the claim for prospective injunctive relief without deciding it because it had been addressed by neither the Ninth Circuit nor the district court. Id. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 1589. In passing, however, the Supreme Court noted: "[o]rdinarily, a prayer for prospective relief will not 'necessarily imply' the invalidity of a previous loss of good time credits and so may properly be brought under § 1983." Id. The type of prospective injunctive relief sought in Edwards--date-stamping witness statements--is, however, very different from that sought by Clarke in ...